Third-rail electric-railway system.



No. 784,303. PATENTED MAR. 7, 1905.

T. J. CASEY & P. H. PICKLES.

THIRD RAIL ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM.

APPLIOATION FILED AUG. 11, 1904.

WITNESSES (ah es A rramvs .s

NITED STATES Patented March 7, 1905.

ATENT FFICE.

THOMAS J. CASEY AND FRED H. PICKLES, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

THIRD-RAIL ELECTRIC-RAILWAY SYSTEM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 784,303, dated March '7, 1905.

Application filed August 11, 1904:. Serial No; 220,366.

To all whom, it puny concern:

Be it known that we. THOMAS J. CASEY and FRED H. PIoKLEs,citiZens of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inThi rd- Rail Electric-Railway Systems. of which the following is aspeciiication,such as will enable those skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to third-rail electricrailway systems; and the object thereof is to provide an improved system of this class in which the third rail or conductor is composed of separate parts or sections which are not in circuit except when a car or motor is passing thereover, the current being supplied to the third rail or conductor or to the separate parts or sections thereof by means of a main feedwire suitably insulated and withwhich each part or section of the third rail or conductor is connected by means of a supplemental feedwire having a switch so that the separate parts or sections of the third rail or conductor may be cut out or insulated whenever desired, the third rail or conductor being also provided with a cover composed of hinged parts or sections whereby the said third rail or conductor or the separate parts or sections thereof may be uncovered whenever necessary for the purpose of cutting out the separate parts or sections thereof or operating the switches for this purpose and for turning on said switches; and with these and other objects in view the invention consists in the construction, combination, and arrangement of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

The invention is fully disclosed in the followingspecification, of which the accompanying drawings form a part, in which the separate parts of our improvement are designated by suitable reference characters in each of the views, and in which- Figure 1 is a transverse section of the third rail of an electric railway and its supports and connections and inVOlving my invention and showing also one of the main rails of the track and a part of a car-truck mounted thereon and provided with a contact arm and shoe, part of this construction being also in section;

Fig. 2, a diagrammatic plane view showing the third rail or conductor, the main feedwire, the connections between the main feedwire and the separate parts or sections of the third rail or conductor, and showing also two of the contact-shoes with which each car or motor is provided; and Fig. 3, a plan view of the cover of the third rail.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, reference being made to Fig. 1, we have shown at a one of the main rails of a railway-track, and at a part of the truck or car of a motor, and said truck is provided with a contact-shoe arm 0, which is curved as shown, so as to form an inner horizontal member 0 and a down\vardly-curved outer portion 0, with which is connected a contact-shoe a", which is adapted to bear on the third rail in the usual or any preferred manner. Secured to the bottom of the truck-frame is a horizontal plate 0 pivoted to the arm 0 at 0", and the inner end of the plate 0" is provided with a thimble (Z, in which is placed a spiral spring (1, which bears on the inner end portion of the arm 0; but the exact construction of the arm 0 and its connection with the truck 6 forms no part of the invention described and claimed herein. Each car or motor is provided in practice with four of the arms (1, one being connected with each truck where two trucks are employed, and each of the arms (,1 is pro vided with one of the contact-shoes a", and the contact-shoes o are connected with the arms a in the usual or any preferred manner.

In Fig. 2 we have shown at r the third rail or conductor and at it the main feed-wire, and the third rail or conductor is divided into main parts or sections which are separated by short members g, which are in no way connected with the parts or sections g, and the main feed-wire l) is connected with the parts or sections of the third rail or conductor by means of supplemental feed-wires 2', having switches The truck 6 is provided with the usual IOO placed on these sleepers, and on said blocks or other supports are placed insulating-blocks N, which support the third rail or conductor g. The third rail or conductor 9 in the construction shown is of the form in cross-section of an ordinary eyebeam and is placed horizontally, and the contact shoe or shoes 0* bear on the inner part f of said rail, while the outer part g of said rail is countersunk in the insulating block or blocks if, as clearly shown in Fig. 1. The main feed-wire or conductor it is supported in a recess if in the top of the block or blocks 10 outside of the third rail or conductor, and outside of the insulating block or blocks is placed an up right board or other support 122, to the top of which is hinged a cover m which in practice is composed of separate sections m hinged to the support 772, as shown at 722*, and secured to the bottom of the cover m or to the separate parts or sections thereof are insulatingblocks m which rest on the central web of the third rail, and the supplemental feedwires 2' and switches 2' are placed in a longitudinal recess formed by the support m and the outer part 57' of the third rail or conductor, and the sections g of the third rail are connected by only one wire with the main feed-wire, making such sections dead except when a car is passing thereover, and the short sections g have no electrical connection whatever. In Fig. 1 the third rail or conductor g is connected with the insulating block or blocks A by a bolt a passing downwardly therethrough and through the corresponding sleeper a but this is only for the purpose of showing the parts in their necessary position, and it will be understood that all these connections are insulated. As thus constructed it will be seen that the entire third rail or any part or section thereof may be exposed at any time by turning back the cover m or the separate parts or sections thereof, and we thus provide for the convenient making of repairs and for the convenient operation of the switches 91 and any part or section or any parts or sections of the third rail or conductor may be cut out of circuit at any time in order to make repairs or for any other purposes. It will also be seen that by means of our improvement the third rail or conductor is entirely covered except on the inner side thereof where the contact-shoes bear thereon, and there is therefore no danger of any one under ordinary circumstances accidentally coming in contact with the said third rail or conductor.

of the trucks of a car or motor with which the contact-arms c are connected will be about thirty feet apart, and under these conditions the lengths of the main parts or sections 9 of the third rail or conductor will be about twenty-nine feet, while the lengths of the parts of the third rail or conductor will be a little less than a foot, and under these conditions only two of the main parts or sections of the third rail or conductor can be in circuit at one time, and the object of the part 57 of the third rail or conductor is to provide means whereby the shoes 6 in passing thereover will be completely insulated from the parts g so that a short circuit cannot be formed at these points.

Having fully described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a third-rail electric-railway system, a third rail arranged adjacent to one of the rails of the track and the contact-surface of which is directed toward said track, and a cover or guard hinged to a support at the outer side of said third rail and composed of separate sections provided with insulating-blocks adapted to rest on said rail, substantially as shown and described.

2. In a third-rail electric-railway system, a third rail arranged adjacent to one of the rails of a track and the contact-surface of which is directed toward said track, said third rail being composed of separate insulated sections, a main feed-wire in electrical connection with each of the sections of the third rail by means of supplemental feed-wires and a cover or guard for the third rail hinged to a support at the outer side of said rail and consisting of separate sections provided with insulatingblocks which rest on said rail, substantially as shown and described.

3. In a third-rail electric-railway system, a third rail arranged adjacent to one of the rails of the track and the contact-surface of which is directed toward said track, said rail being composed of main independent insulating-sections between each of which is a short independent section, a main feed-wire connected with each of said main-independent sections by supplemental feed-wires having switches, and a guard or cover hinged to a support at the outer side of the third rail and composed of separate sections having insulating-blocks which rest on said third rail, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony that we claim the foregoing as our invention we have signed our names, in presence of the subscribing witnesses, this 10th day of August, 1904.

THOMAS J. CASEY. FRED H. PICKLES. Witnesses:

C. J. KLEIN, G. E. MULREANY. 

